Page 12 - AHATA

A2 u.s. news
Monday 23 June 2025
U.S. boosts emergency Mideast evacuations and travel warnings

after Trump orders strikes in Iran

By MATTHEW LEE sistance for private Ameri- The embassy is planning
AP Diplomatic Writer cans wanting to leave to reschedule the can-
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Lebanon but said those celed flights to Athens on
State Department has dou- who want to should try to Monday when it expects
bled the number of emer- use existing commercial as many as six evacuation
gency evacuation flights it services to depart. flights to the Greek capi-
is providing for American At the same time, the de- tal, along with a chartered
citizens wishing to leave partment issued warnings flight to Rome and another
Israel, ordered the depar- to U.S. citizens in Saudi flight to Cyprus, according
ture of nonessential staff Arabia and Turkey to take to the update.
from the U.S. Embassy in extra security precautions In addition to the flights that
Lebanon and is stepping given the uncertainty. have already left, a cruise
up travel warnings around "Given reports of regional ship carrying more than
the Middle East because of hostilities, the U.S. Mission to 1,000 American citizens,
concerns Iran will retaliate Saudi Arabia has advised including several hundred
against U.S. interests in the The U.S. Embassy branch office in Tel Aviv, Israel, is pictured, its personnel to exercise in- Jewish youngsters who had
region. Jan. 8, 2025. creased caution and limit been visiting Israel on an
In internal and public no- Associated Press non-essential travel to any organized tour, arrived in
tices, the department over military installations in the Cyprus, according to the
the weekend significantly Iran's nuclear facilities, the the volatile and unpredict- region," the department document.
ramped up its cautionary department said it had or- able security situation in said in its notice for Saudi It also said the evacuation
advice to Americans in the dered nonessential person- the region." Arabia. of non-essential person-
Mideast. nel and the families of staff The notice made no men- In Turkey, the department nel at the U.S. Embassy in
In a notice on Sunday, af- at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut tion of any potential evac- said U.S. personnel "have Baghdad and consulate
ter American strikes against to leave Lebanon "due to uation flights or other as- been cautioned to main- in Erbil is continuing. Those
tain a low profile and in- staffers had been ordered
structed to avoid personal to leave even before Israel
travel to the U.S. Consulate began its military operation
Adana consular district," in Iran more than a week
which includes the NATO ago. "As part of our ongo-
airbase at Incirlik. ing effort to streamline op-
"Negative sentiment to- erations, additional person-
ward U.S. foreign poli- nel departed Iraq on June
cy may prompt actions 21 and 22," the department
against U.S. or Western in- said. "These departures
terests in Turkey," the state- represent a continuation
ment said. of the process started on
Late Saturday, the depart- June 12."
ment said it was stepping As of Saturday, more than
up evacuation flights for 7,900 Americans had asked
American citizens from Is- for assistance in leaving Is-
rael to Europe and continu- rael and more than 1,000
ing to draw down its staff at had sought help in leaving
diplomatic missions in Iraq. Iran, where the U.S. has no
But even before the U.S. diplomatic presence, the
airstrikes on Iran were document said.
made public by President There are roughly 700,000
Donald Trump on Saturday Americans, many of them
evening in Washington, the dual U.S.-Israeli citizens, in
U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem Israel and many thousands
had announced the start of Americans, most of them
of evacuation flights for pri- dual U.S.-Iranian citizens, in
vate Americans from Israel. Iran. It was not clear how
Sixty-seven American citi- many Americans had suc-
zens left Israel on two gov- cessfully made it out of Iran
ernment flights bound for through overland routes,
Athens, Greece, on Satur- although the document
day and four more evacu- said more than 200 had
ation flights to Athens had entered neighboring Azer-
been planned for Sunday, baijan as of Saturday since
according to an internal the conflict began.
State Department docu- After the U.S. strikes in Iran,
ment seen by The Associ- security officers at all U.S.
ated Press. However, due embassies and consulates
to the closure of Israeli have been instructed to
airspace after the U.S. air- conduct reviews of their
strikes on Iran three of those post's security posture
four flights were canceled, and report back to the
according to an update State Department by late
from the U.S. Embassy in Je- Sunday.q
rusalem.